Why a house full of pickles, you ask?
When we were officially a couple, soon to be
wed, our close friends started to combine our surnames - one Gillis, one Perkins, and you
get Gerkins. Over the year we resisted being
named after tiny pickled cucumbers, but
eventually, these things stick.
And now we are three.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Owen turned eight weeks old on Friday the 29th and will be two calendar months old on Wednesday the 3rd. He weighs 13 lbs, is 58 cm(23 in) tall, and has a 41 cm (16 in) head circumferance. (75th percentile, 50th percentile and 75th percentile, respectively).

It seems incredible that two months have gone by already, and at the same time I can't really remember what life was like before... And life before I got pregnant? No idea.

He started social smiling this week, and it makes all the hard work up to date finally really feel worthwhile. One thing they don't really mention about newborns is the fact that they don't give but take take take. You have to make do with the soft cuddliness of them and try not to burn out. Then all of a sudden - the smiles, oh the smiles. They are absolutely infectious!

He likes to lie in the crook of my arm now and look up at me and coo and make conversation. I have to drop everything and just chat with him as soon as it starts - lovely.

He's a huge fan of the tub and takes advantage of his nightly (allegedly calming) baths to get out a whole day's worth of vigorous kicking and splashing.

On the other hand, the colic has been back the past few evenings, which is a challenge. And he goes back and forth between being a nursing champ and a strange crying at the breast weirdo. I am sure we can get that straightened out.

Today, we headed out to Dartmouth Crossing to run some errands, and decided to try and catch a showing of Star Trek while the theatre was likely to be quiet. We ended up with the place to ourselves! Did you know that if you ask nicely, and there's no one else in the theatre, they'll turn the sound down for you? How cool is that? Anyway, it was a great movie, and Owen did really well, eating and watching the trailers and being generally nonplussed by the sound and violence. He even spent a little time on the theatre steps, after having his diaper changed. (Thank goodness for changing pads, is all I have to say about that.)

We're starting a monthly 'birthday' pic tradition, but that photo will have to wait for tomorrow!

Likes: crinkly eared Peter Rabbitcar rides, when there are no traffic lightsbeing in the wrap, usuallystrolling in the strollerlying in the crib looking at the mobile.

Dislikes: strange undefined list of things that cause screaming and parental distressMay include some likes above.

(apologies if you caught this post the first time around - I posted before I was done!)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Wow, does the time ever go by quickly! But at the same time, it doesn't.Owen is just over six weeks old now and it's kind of hard to remember what life was like before him.It's partly just the general haze. I can't complain about lack of sleep. I get enough all in all (My baby-minding shift usually goes to somewhere around midnight and I'm back on at seven-ish in the morning--sometimes I do changings in between but generally I have no memory of what goes on between those hours. When I'm out, I'm out.) Somehow, though, I've just got some of the "baby brain."Having Mom, Dad and Heather here for part of April and May was great, but also contributed to my becoming unmoored in time.It's officially a long weekend, but I've been on a long weekend for two months now. It doesn't matter what day it is, so I don't think much about it.Not having to go to work these days is absolutely great. The initial flameout of my former job was no fun, but with Owen to occupy our days full time, I've forgotten all about that stuff. I don't feel like a guy without a job. I feel like a guy with a big, exciting (but also often boring for long stretches) and demanding job with very few breaks.And I'm not too bad at it.People have asked me "Is it what you expected?"I really didn't know what to expect.I feared there would be lots of moments when I just wouldn't know what to do with or for the baby. I thought I might even get a little panicky or overwhelmed. So far, that hasn't been the case. You figure it out. You try everything. When Owen screams in my ear or grabs a fistful of chest hair, I continue rocking him and sweetly say , "Oh! You've got a good grasp on that chest hair!"And it's darn satisfying when you can get a cranky baby settled an sleeping by singing slow airs in his earI'm usually on diaper duty through the day. I don't think I ever believed the folks who said, "The poop is not a big deal--you just deal with it." But it's true. Not a big deal it all. It's often kind of a fun time for Owen and I. We chat and joke.I watch a ton more TV than I have in years and years. I feel very blessed to have had a baby right on the cusp of NHL playoff season, and that Eastlink still mysteriously gives us TSN months and months after we reverted to basic cable from a free trial extended package.So, yes, Owen and I have seen basically every game in the last six weeks, and we've enjoyed it.The others stuff on TV? Not so much. What Not to Wear is a guilty pleasure, and I find myself sitting through strings of episodes of things like A Baby Story and those shows about getting out of debt or cleaning your disgusting house (all of which have the effect of making me feel good about our finances and cleanliness).

Okay, the Penguins just scored and the above is the most I've written in ages.And they score again!

Must pay more attention to hockey...we'll try to be better bloggers in the future.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

It's hard to believe that Owen is a whole month old. There's a huge learning curve to this life with a baby thing, and I won't deny that all of us are still figuring things out, but at the same time it's hard to remember the days before we had him with us.

So much time and so little time has passed.

Things are still pretty sweet around here - we're in love with our boy. There are moments, of course, when he's screaming, or eating constantly, or fussy and nothing will calm him, where it's just plain hard. But there are lots more moments where we can't get over how amazing he is.

Every day he changes more, makes new sounds - chirps and crows and coos - and more intentional sounds. Instead of immediately dissolving when he's wet or hungry or lonely, he calls out for us, then waits for us to respond, and calls again. When he nurses, he tickles my ribs with his bottom hand, and nests his top one in my cleavage or hangs on to my neckline or takes a handful of my sweater. When he needs a burp he grouses with his mouth full until I bring him up to my shoulder.

When we put him down on the floor to play he looks so hard at every new book and toy. He seems to want so very much to roll over or crawl (not yet, baby, not yet!) He stares into people's faces now, and looks around for his dad or I when he hears us in the room.

He weighs 10.5 lbs now! He's growing out of his newborn duds! Fortunately, John's cousin sent us a giant bag of hand-me-down clothes, so with all the gorgeous outfits he's been receiving as gifts, he's well dressed through several sizes!

He's a little thrown off by so many visitors still, and spoiled by so much sleeping in arms, but he's starting to build a nighttime routine. He'll eat around 12:30, around 3:30 and around 7. And OK, so he spends 45 minutes to an hour awake each time, which doesn't add up to a whole lot of sleep, but things could be much, much worse!

Today we took him in to the Herald to visit with his dad's ex-co-workers and he was a little angel the whole time. With a quick parking lot lunch, he was ready for time with Grandma and Dad while I got a haircut. It was a tiny bit nerve-wracking to be away from him for an hour, but we all survived (he slept through the whole thing and I concentrated on being just a couple streets away.)

Everyone keeps being impressed that we're up and dressed and out of the house - but it's for my own sanity more than anything else, believe me. If I spent the whole day in my housecoat I don't think I'd do very well! It's been wonderful to be co-parenting through this whole needy stage as well - there's no pressure to make sure that John gets tons of sleep so he can be productive, so if things go awry on my shift I don't feel guilty getting help, and it's been good to have so many willing people to hand him over to during the day as well.

We had him baptised last Sunday, and he was very good for that as well, even if I did have to feed him in the pews. He screamed bloody murder in the restaurant afterwards, but he never does like to wait for his food. There are photos, as usual, in flickr.